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At Utah, New Mexico and Boise State, the 22 young men who have signed to play football at Arizona would be hailed as a program-altering, championship-promising class.

But in the Pac-10 and at Arizona, they are sleepers and blue-collar prospects, a class laden with six junior college transfers that, in this league, often smacks of desperation.

On Wednesday, that didn't stop UA coach Mike Stoops from saying, "I believe we got all of the players that we're supposed to get.''

What else was he going to say when they were charging $15 a pop for boosters to attend his annual recruiting party at McKale Center?

"We beat Colorado State on a bunch of guys?''

Not hardly.

In every Pac-10 precinct but Tucson, the perception is that Arizona got hammered on recruiting day.

In Los Angeles, UCLA's Rick Neuheisel said of his first Bruin recruiting group, ranked in the top 10 nationally, "it is a great class.''

And in Tempe, ASU's Dennis Erickson said "winning opens a lot of doors."

Stoops said "we lost our share.''

That is Arizona football as we have known it for 30 years.

Since his hiring in November 2003, Stoops has lost all of the recruiting advantages that once made him so attractive and, it was hoped, capable of changing the way Arizona acquires football players.

Alas, he is no longer associated with winning football, as he was at Oklahoma. He is no longer fresh and daring — a bold new choice for top recruits — but rather a 17-29 coach who has met Arizona's inherent recruiting limits and come to accept them.

Arizona's class of 22 included just five skill-position players and 17 other guys who weren't seriously recruited by the Pac-10's upper class of USC, UCLA, Cal, Oregon and Arizona State.

"We are who we are,'' said Stoops.

On paper and in the Internet rankings, Arizona landed two players who turned heads everywhere: SoCal quarterback Matt Scott and Fresno cornerback Robert Golden.

Stoops beat Michigan for Scott and USC for Golden.

Those Pac-10 coaches who regularly play in bowl games got five or 10 players like Scott and Golden.

Arizona is again positioned in the awkward spot of trying to do more with less.

What hurt most was that Erickson toyed with the Wildcats. He poached Arizona's top three national recruits — skill position studs Jerrell Barbour, Ryan Bass and Gerrell Robinson — who are the kind of franchise-growing prospects who are often the difference between sellout crowds and plenty-of-tickets-available crowds.

"To me, that's a bitter pill to swallow,'' said Stoops.

No Arizona football coach in the Pac 10 years has out-recruited ASU in Phoenix. Maricopa County is not an Arizona stronghold and it never will be. But it became a source of embarrassment this year when Stoops boldly (unwittingly perhaps?) tried to get Barbour and Robinson away from the Sun Devils before they fully knew how the recruiting process works.

Perhaps Stoops will file that one under "know your limits,'' and in the future refrain from courting those of great skill who grow so up close to Sun Devil Stadium.

How many times do you ask the homecoming queen for a date before you realize the inevitable?

The Maricopa County players who blossomed into All-Pac-10 players at Arizona — Byron Evans, Dana Wells, David Wood, Rob Waldrop, Brad Anderson, Armon Williams, Trung Canidate, Bobby Wade — were mostly those who were judged to be flawed in some way.

By necessity, Arizona has often developed and made a living off those with a few flaws. Dick Tomey and Larry Smith didn't waste their recruiting time with the Phoenix all-stars.

This is a typical UA football recruiting class, no more, no less. In 1995, Arizona signed nine JC transfers. Bill Walsh then wrote a book in which he suggested Arizona had so many JC transfers it had to "hose them off.''

The real story is that Stoops has been unable to raise Arizona's recruiting level, failing to take advantage of slip-ups at ASU and UCLA.

Now both programs are back under marquee coaches, operating at strength.

Since Stoops came into the league, UCLA has added Neuheisel and ASU has installed Erickson. That means Stoops no longer recruits against the bland Karl Dorrell and the abrasive Dirk Koetter, but against two former NFL coaches who have either won Rose Bowls or national championships.

"We got the guys that fit our program,'' Stoops said Wednesday.

Same old, same old.

Catch up on all college recruiting news at go.azstarnet.com/recruitingroundup